


The Colour of your Eyes

by sedna_mode



Series: February Writing Challenge [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: #2 "It Reminded Me Of You", 100 Ways to Say I Love You Writing Challenge, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, For a Friend, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Not Beta Read, Pointless fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-04
Updated: 2017-02-04
Packaged: 2018-09-21 21:39:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9567860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sedna_mode/pseuds/sedna_mode
Summary: Shiro felt like he was wearing a dent into the waiting room’s floor with his pacing, but he couldn’t help it. He needed to be in motion, needed to burn off the jittery energy crawling under his skin. The doctors had assured him Keith would be fine, but watching the ship he was piloting plummet out of the sky seemingly uncontrolled had had an effect Shiro still wasn’t over.





	

**Author's Note:**

> AU where Voltron never happened. Keith and Shiro are both Garrison pilots who get sent off on various missions. Missions that mean they're apart for long periods.

Shiro felt like he was wearing a dent into the waiting room’s floor with his pacing, but he couldn’t help it. He needed to be in motion, needed to burn off the jittery energy crawling under his skin. The doctors had assured him Keith would be fine, but watching the ship he was piloting plummet out of the sky seemingly uncontrolled had had an effect Shiro still wasn’t over.

“Ah… Mr. Shirogane?” Shiro spun toward the young nurse in the doorway, moving to stand at attention in front of her before catching himself and adopting a more casual posture. Old habits.

“My name’s Melissa, Doctor Ryner sent me to fetch you. Keith is out of surgery, you may see him now. If you’ll follow me?”

Shiro tried to swallow the lump in his throat, but by the croak in his voice when he thanked her he didn’t quite succeed. He pushed trembling fingers through his hair, grabbing hold of his white fringe and tugging a little, hoping the sensation would help anchor him. Keith was okay, he was okay and Shiro was about to see him. He tried to picture it; Keith neatly tucked into the hospital bed, face peaceful in sleep, chest rising and falling smoothly with his breathing. Maybe a bit of soft sunshine from the small window gracing Keith’s face, completing the tableau.

The thought clashed violently with the images he had watched on the control room monitors, of fire enveloping Keith’s ship, a dozen different alarms ringing and people rushing around him. He had stood, helpless and powerless, as Keith tumbled out of the sky, a blazing reminder that space travel, though it had grown infinitely safer over the centuries since the first humans traveled beyond Earth’s atmosphere, still remained a dangerous and risky endeavour.

Somehow, against all odds, Keith had managed to wrestle the ship under some semblance of control at the last moment, which meant the Galaxy Garrison only had 6 _injured_ astronauts to deal with, as opposed to 6 _dead_ ones.

Keith was being hailed as a hero; Shiro just wanted his husband.

He was abruptly brought back to the present when the nurse—Melissa he reminded himself—stopped at an open door and gestured for him to enter ahead of her.

The first thing he noticed was the doctor scribbling on a chart at the foot of the bed. Then his eyes were drawn to the bed’s occupant and Shiro felt his heart thud painfully in his chest. It wasn’t quite the tableau he had constructed in his head; there were bandages around Keith’s head and one of his arms was in a cast, as well as one of his legs. He had an assortment of tubes and wires connected to him. But under all the medical equipment Keith’s chest rose and fell with a steady rhythm and really that’s all Shiro needed to see.

“Keith…” The word left Shiro’s mouth on a sigh, charged with the powerful relief sweeping through him.

In two strides he was at Keith’s bedside, carefully picking up his hand so as not to disturb the tubes connected to his arm and bending to briefly press his lips to Keith’s fingers. Touching him, feeling his aliveness for himself, steadied Shiro enough that he remembered the other people in the room. Dr. Ryner was watching the scene with a patient understanding; no doubt she knew there was no point trying to talk to Shiro until he was ready.

He straightened up and turned to face her, giving her his full attention.

“Sorry Doctor, I just…”

“No need to apologize, Mr. Shirogane, I quite understand.” Dr. Ryner had a soothing voice, the kind that immediately put Shiro at ease. “Your husband was very lucky, as was the rest of his crew for that matter. Thanks to his heroic actions his injuries are not severe. Broken arm and leg, a couple fractured ribs from the harness, all non-threatening. We’re most worried about the concussion, which is why we’ve chosen to keep him under for a few hours, just to give the swelling in his brain some time to go down. You’re welcome to stay with him, his personal effects are there”—she pointed to a small pile on the table—“and please call us as soon as anything changes.”

“Thank you, I will.” Shiro nodded his understanding and Dr. Ryner flipped Keith’s chart closed, replacing it where it belonged at the foot of the bed.

“Do you have any questions, Mr. Shirogane?”

“No, thanks for everything.”

Dr. Ryner smiled and nodded, then turned and filed out of the room with Melissa behind her, leaving Shiro with nothing but the sound of the machines and Keith’s quiet breathing. He let out an explosive breath and dragged the armchair from the corner so he could sit next to Keith’s bed, taking up his hand again.

“You ass,” he whispered into the back of Keith’s hand, chuckling without mirth, “you absolute ass. When I told you to come home quickly I didn’t mean ‘freefall out of the sky’ you know.”

He turned the hand over to press his lips to Keith’s palm, but paused when something caught his eye. There, in the middle of Keith’s palm, was a small round indent in the skin, about the size of a quarter. It looked as though something had been pressing into his hand for a long time.

Frowning, Shiro traced a finger over the mark. It didn’t look like an injury from the crash, but he couldn’t figure out what had caused it. Hoping for some answers he turned to Keith’s small pile of personal effects. There wasn’t much considering he had been wearing his Garrison-issued suit when he crashed, but there was the pocket knife he always carried on his person, as well as the pair of thin fingerless leather gloves he always wore, and a third item Shiro couldn’t place. It was a small round stone, dark grey and perfectly smooth, and upon inspection it fit exactly in the dent in Keith’s hand.

Settling back into his chair Shiro contemplated the stone, turning it over in his fingers. For it to leave a mark like that Keith must have been holding it for a long time, yet Shiro had never seen it before, couldn’t figure out why Keith would take it with him on a trip to Titan.

He kept spinning the stone reflexively and the more he stared at it the more he felt his thoughts drift, his questions running around in circles in his head. The day’s rollercoaster of emotions was finally catching up to him, leaving him numb and drained.

 

Shiro hadn’t meant to fall asleep, but it was dark outside when he opened his eyes again. He sat disoriented for a moment, wondering what had woken him up, when a rustle came from the bed. Immediately he sat up and reached to turn on the small lamp mounted on the wall at the head of the bed.

“Keith?”

A quiet groan and another rustle greeted his words, and Shiro reached to grab hold of Keith’s hand. His fingers twitched and then held on, the contact seeming to rouse him further.

“Keith, can you open your eyes? Do you know what happened?”

“Shi… wha…” Keith frowned, eyes still closed, and turned his head toward the sound. His rasp of a voice was like music to Shiro’s ears and he brought up his prosthetic hand to cradle Keith’s cheek.

“You’re in the hospital, babe. You crashed, remember? But you’re ok, everything’s going to be ok. Can you open your eyes for me?”

With what looked like a tremendous effort Keith pried his eyes open, squinting against the soft light in the room. Lying in a hospital bed is not how Shiro had imagined seeing Keith’s eyes again for the first time in over a year apart, but the sight of them brought a lump to his throat regardless.

“Hey you.” Shiro fought to keep his voice steady through his wavering smile.

Keith’s fingers tightened around his and Shiro watched his throat bob as he worked to find his voice. “Hey… you.”

A watery laugh left Shiro’s throat and he just had to lean over and press a kiss to Keith’s temple.

“Let me call the nurse to come check you out ok?” Shiro reached and pressed the button by Keith’s pillow. “How are you feeling?”

“My head… hurts. Fuzzy. Can’t remember.”

“That’s ok, you got pretty banged up. I’m sure it’ll come back in time.”

Keith hummed, words just a little too much for him at the moment, and settled back into the bed. They waited in silence for the nurse to arrive, Shiro running his thumb back and forth over the back of Keith’s hand.

A few minutes later a new nurse Shiro hadn’t seen before came in, smiling when he noticed Keith was awake. He checked Keith’s vitals, seemed satisfied with what he found, and left to get a doctor for a more thorough examination. Soon they were alone again, the doctor having left satisfied that Keith was recovering normally and assuring them the memory blanks were most likely due to the sedatives and not to worry about them.

By then Keith looked about ready to go back to sleep for the rest of the night, but Shiro had one more question. He dug in the crack of the armchair where he had dropped the stone upon falling asleep and brought it up in front of Keith’s eyes.

He frowned at first and then a spark of recognition lit his face, accompanied—surprisingly—by a light blush. Shiro quirked an eyebrow.

“What is this Keith? I’ve never seen it before.”

Keith reached for the stone and Shiro dropped it in his palm, where it settled into the indent it had made. Keith contemplated it for a few moments before answering.

“I… found it. The day before I left. In the stream in the woods behind our place. It reminded me of you, your eyes. Same colour.”

Now that he mentioned it…

Shiro snapped his attention to Keith’s face and found him staring steadily back at him. Warmth was blooming in Shiro’s chest, a soft smile tugging at his mouth.

“So what, you just took a rock to space? And you”—Shiro touched the stone where it lay in Keith’s hand—“held onto it the whole time or something? It left quite the mark.”

Keith shrugged. “Kept it under my glove. Most of the time I forgot it was there, got used to it. Felt like having a bit of you with me somehow.”

Shiro didn’t know how to respond to that, so he instead leaned over and kissed the stone, hoping the gesture conveyed the depth of his emotions in that moment. Then he moved to trail kisses up Keith’s inner forearm, mindful of the tubes still attached to it. He felt when Keith shivered under his touch.

He leaned up and touched his forehead against Keith’s bandaged one, sighing contentedly with the realization he finally truly believed everything would be fine, and whispered into the air they shared.

“I’m here now, you have all of me.”

**Author's Note:**

> [Come talk to me on tumblr!](http://ace-pidge.tumblr.com/)


End file.
